“Good. So good, but tired.”
Turbulence causes us to sway and his hand grabs my arm to steady me. “We should get back to our seats.” Stepping back from me, he lowers my dress then pulls my panties from his pocket, handing them to me. When I take the undies, he pulls his pants up. A few minutes later, we’re back in our seats, buckled up, and ready to land. Leaning his head back, he turns to face me, and says, “I was thinking we could get married tomorrow night.”
“Have you already booked everything for the ceremony?” It’s been a long day, a yawn escapes me.
“Maybe.” A devious grin appears. “And no yawning. I have plans for us later.”
“Care to expand on that?”
“No. I want to keep you guessing.”
“So you’re not gonna tell what you have in store for later?”
“My plans include you, only you, naked in bed, under me, on top of me. If I’m lucky, your mouth on me, and being inside of you for the next two days.”
I stare at him, not sure what I should say other than, “Wow.”
Touching my cheek, he says, “I’ve slept without you for over a month. I never want to sleep without you again. I want to spend every minute of forever with you.”
“Wow.”
He laughs. “Again with the wow?”
“I have a feeling I’m gonna be saying that a lot.”
With a smile, he tilts his head and kisses me on the neck. “You deserve a lifetime of wows.”
The plane lands and we’re whisked by private car to the hotel. I try to straighten the wrinkles out of the lower half of my dress as we walk in the doors, but with this fabric, I’m stuck being a wrinkled mess. “I look like I just got fucked,” I whisper.
“I know,” he says, not whispering.
That’s when it occurs to me, and I pop him on the arm. “That’s why you wanted my dress to stay on, isn’t it?”
He shrugs, not apologizing.
“Next time, why don’t you just pee on me?”
Stopping in his tracks, he turns to me. He holds my face and with his thumbs he rubs from my nose to my temples. “Your makeup was smudged.” I hold onto his wrists, and he says, “You’re damn beautiful and you know I get jealous easily. Do I want everybody in this hotel to know that I just fucked you? Absolutely, doesn’t bother me. Is it a trust issue? Not with you. I trust you explicably. It’s all these other fuckers in here who already have their eyes on you. They’re the ones I don’t trust.”
I love that he doesn’t have a bunch of rehearsed lines. He just tells me how it is, not bothering to hide his flaws. I lift up on my tiptoes and kiss him… and he kisses me—in public for the first time. I take his hand and we start walking again because I no longer care how a wrinkled dress leads to implications and gossip. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that I am here with Dalton. We don’t need to hide our love… or lust.
When I walk into the penthouse at The Palatial, I smile. “So many good memories.” I twirl. “I’m so glad you booked this room.”
“We may have met downstairs, but this suite is where we began. Plus…” He looks smug. “… when I look around, I can name everywhere we’ve fucked. Good memories.”
Although I love the changes I see in Dalton, I’m still glad that some of the rough around the edges rocker is still there. It’s past midnight and I’m exhausted, so I start tugging at the zipper on my back, pulling it down while I walk toward the bedroom. I stop just inside the doorway and look back. His top few buttons are undone with his tie loose around his neck. His hair is messier, sexier, his shoulders relaxed. “You coming?” I ask, stepping out of my Maid of Honor dress.
“Come here, beautiful.”
I go to him in only heels and lingerie. He takes my hand and leads me into the kitchen. Turning me around, my stomach is pressed against the counter and his hands are on my waist. His warm breath hits the back of my neck and he says, “I also remember everywhere we kissed and this was where I tasted your skin for the first time.” His lips touch the top of my shoulder and he kisses me gently. I close my eyes, remembering the goosebumps I got in this very spot. When he drags my bra strap from my shoulder, I turn around and his arms trap me between them. With our noses touching, my heart races and just like I did months ago, I place my hand on his chest. He covers mine, and whispers, “I always felt it. I knew when you walked into that bar that there was no other ending for us. You took my breath away and there was no way I could let you leave without knowing you, even if I had to lie.”